A February Bride
(Zondervan),
by Betsy St. Amant is part of the Year of Weddings novella series and is as
sweet and delicious as pink cotton candy. This is a fun read, guaranteed to put a smile on the reader’s face.The novella starts off with Allie and Marcus
at the church, about to be married, when Allie gets cold feet, and takes off
leaving Marcus at the altar.
St. Amant provides excellent character definition with
Marcus. He is hard-working,
good-looking, and a sympathetic individual who comes from a wonderfully caring
and fun family. Who wouldn’t love him and want to marry him? Allie, although
she loves Marcus, doesn’t feel worthy to marry him. She comes from a very
dysfunctional family. Her mother has been married and divorced so many times,
Allie can’t keep count. Her grandmother and aunt have a similar track record. Allie
feels doomed to repeat their serial divorce pattern. To make matters worse,
Allie is expected to wear the ill-fated bridal gown that has been worn and
passed down by all of her erratic female relatives. She feels Marcus deserves
better than her and her crazy family.
After several months pass from the cancelled wedding of Allie
and Marcus, Allie’s best friend Hannah, who is also Marcus’s sister, asks Allie
to be her maid of honor. Hannah’s quickly approaching wedding is set for five
weeks away on Valentine’s Day. Allie knows she must be there for her best
friend but is worried about what she will do when she sees Marcus for the first
time since she ran away from their wedding. This sets up a series of
pre-wedding events that throw Allie and Marcus together.
The more Allie and Marcus are together at Hannah’s pre-wedding
parties and rehearsals, the more their attraction blooms again. Still Allie
feels it would be unfair to Marcus to reunite since she comes from such a
cursed family. The wedding rehearsal scene with Allie’s mother, grandmother,
and aunt will make the reader both cringe and laugh out loud.
If the remaining books in the Year of Brides series are as entertaining as A February Bride, this will definitely be a series worth reading. A
February Bride is light reading but it contains a deeper message for those
who look. A person may come from bad circumstances but one is not doomed to
repeat their family’s mistakes. Everyone has the ability to unchain themselves
from their past. This is definitely a message that readers can incorporate into
their own lives.
A February Bride was
released January 28, 2014.
Gloria
is a 59 year-old retired RN and former accountant who has a life long love of
reading.She has spent the last two
years reading every Amish novel she can get her hands on.When not reading, Gloria spends her day trading
stocks and options, tweeting under the name of @gloriason, and expressing her
gratitude to God.